


Even In Sleep

by shewhomutters (wherearemypants)



Category: Mononoke-hime | Princess Mononoke
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 19:51:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9458006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wherearemypants/pseuds/shewhomutters
Summary: Lady Eboshi retires from work at the end of the night with a short conversation between herself and a loved one who is now all but lost to her.First part set at the beginning of the film Princess Mononoke. Second part takes place directly after the film's resolution.





	

Had things been different, the manner in which Lady Eboshi would have handled the wolf girl would have been… different. She doesn’t like to think about it.  
  
Instead, she harbors a brand of calm resentment for the child whose fearlessness she would respect if not for the obvious evidence that it is a wolf’s fearlessness she harbors, rather than the true strength of a woman.  
  
The girl hadn’t been much of a problem until recently, when suddenly she was out for the blood of the good people who needed the mountain just as much as she did. Then, she became a problem.

  
Eboshi sighs in a way that feels ragged, but she knows sounds careful and dainty. The ledgers she’d marked, denoting the day’s inventory, are set aside for the night. She exits her office and steps out into the main courtyard in order to make her way to her own abode, noting with satisfaction the great light of the iron fires and the smell of burning coal, melting ore, and the faintest gunpowder. Activity around her pauses briefly as she passes. Men nod their heads in respect, while the few women who aren’t working stop to wave and grin at her. She smiles back at them as she enters her hut.

She doesn’t consider her living space extravagant in the slightest. She keeps it clean and neat, with few mementos adorning her walls and a wardrobe of simple but quality kimonos—the kinds worn by samurai. Her guns, swords, and her…

“Good night, my lady.”

Bed. There’s a woman in her bed.

“Kioko, I no longer share my bed.”

“You would, my lady. If I were not Kioko.”

Eboshi smiles. The woman beneath her blankets shifts, just the slightest, calculated bit, and the thin cover slides away, bearing one breast.

“Alas, you are she.”

“I thought… you might pretend, my lady.”

“Shall I call Gonzo to extract you or will you take your own leave?”

Kioko winces, and half rolls, half tumbles, off of the bedroll. Eboshi holds her tunic out for her as she slides her arms through the sleeves. Kioko ties her belt and makes her way finally for the door, but turns before she can make her exit.

“One of these days, you’ll get over what few losses you’ve had. I’ll be around then too, don’t worry,” the little worker murmurs.

“Good night.”

“Good night, my lady.”

She’s too distracted to go to sleep now, so Eboshi slips out back to her garden. The lights in the leper’s hut are all out, but a familiarly-bandaged figure sits, nodding off against the railing. Eboshi sits beside her without a word.

“Kioko again?” Miwa’s voice is quiet.

“Yes.”

“She is very persistent.”

“She is,” Eboshi reclines back against the stairs and closes her eyes. The wood digs into her back and splinters her fingertips. “I’m going to have the wood of this deck replaced,” she says. “You all should be able to walk around barefooted if you wish.”

“I’m sure Toki wouldn’t mind if you let Kioko keep you company.”

“Toki is married, she wouldn’t mind.”

“I know. That’s why I said it.” Miwa’s eyes lower to the bits of metal in her lap. Her fingers deftly fasten the gun’s lock bits together. She pulls the fuse back and it snaps forward on its own. Eboshi watches her intently. “I think if I attach something to this to make it fire, the rifle itself will be easier to grip. That will be good for the girls.”

“If you want to give me your blessing, then you can give it, Miwa.”

The leper’s hands still, but her eyes never rise from her lap.

“I already gave you my blessing for Toki. She must give you hers now.”

“Toki is married.” The Lady’s voice is as ever, frustratingly even. Betraying nothing. “She has no claim on me.” The leper’s eyes flicker imperceptibly, ever shrouded by the many bandages tied around her.

“Then you are free, Eboshi.” And there it is, the quiet desperation seemingly attributed only to the young woman. The terrified sort of tone that divulges an understanding that neither of them can have all that they want.

“Beloved,”

“Stop,” Miwa’s voice comes just as softly as before, but bites like a dagger. The Lady is silent enough that the muffled sound of Miwa’s breathing can be heard even over the distant din of the ironworks. “You, of all people in this town, do not deserve to be alone. Even in sleep.”

“I do not wish to lie with Kioko,” the Lady murmurs, and her eyes turn away from Miwa, towards the glow of her hut, and the smoke-filled twilight. “And I am not lonely.”

“I would never wish loneliness on you.”

“And I you.”

The women look at each other. And there’s an ache there, something like a longing to be seen, and understood. Not by matters of physicality, but in matters of the heart. It is unnecessary. They know. They already understand too much. The Lady stretches, and her hand reaches out, as if to drag the rag obscuring Miwa’s eyes away from her face, but a wrapped fist blocks it. She holds that instead.

“How is it?” Eboshi asks, delicate fingers grazing the soiled wrappings.

“All right,” the leper sighs. “I’m not quite sure where my feet went though.” Eboshi frowns, but Miwa’s eyes are full of laughter. “I’m fine, really.”

“Let me move you to my home,” the Lady says. “You will be more comfortable there.”

“No, my lady.” The bits of iron disappear into a fold in Miwa’s clothing, and she uses her arms to shift herself out of her spot. When she doesn’t stand, Eboshi lifts an eyebrow.

“Can you not feel your legs, also?”

“I’ll be alright, good night my lady.”

“I’ll fetch Gonzo to bring you inside.”

“I will never forgive you if you do,” Miwa interjects. “And I’m sure neither will Gonzo.”

“He’d forgive if it meant something to me that he did it.”

“It means nothing.”

“You are presumptuous.”

“Presumptuous? Am I not still your beloved, according to you?”

“You are my heart, and my spirit.”

“You are iron, my Lady. Fire and coal is your spirit. And gunpowder is your lover.”

“Are you not content I’ve affirmed your assumption?”

“I will be content when my legs return to me.”

“And now you dance around the subject.”

Miwa smiles. Eboshi knows she does by the way the bandages on her face strain where her cheeks are. Her limp legs quiver with the effort she makes to playfully tap her toes together.

“Not quite, my lady.”

Eboshi shifts, stands. And suddenly all the delicate grace of the woman disappears, and Eboshi lifts the leper into her arms, hefting her lightly, without anguish or strain.

“To bed then,” she says. Miwa sighs.

“I would have slept out here tonight. I don’t mind.”

“Let me do this one kindness.”

“You’ve done so many kindnesses.”

“Yes,” Eboshi says. And she carries Miwa inside.

* * *

 

 

“We’re going to build a new town. A better one.” The men and women around her smile. She smiles, and gingerly places a hand on the raw nub that her shoulder will become when it heals. She looks around. The people around her are fresh-faced, shining with the miracle they have witnessed today. There are new faces, too. Eboshi’s brow furrows at the figure of a man standing there in clean white cloth, draped in unraveled bandages. He nudges the woman on his right, dressed similarly yet also unfamiliar, and they both laugh. Eboshi’s heart jumps into her throat. She knows them. She _knows_ them. Except she’s never really known them, not like this. Not without ragged, rotting skin and soiled clothing. The forest spirit had really healed everything, even down to the lepers. Eboshi’s eyes widen.

There’s a sudden urge shared by everyone to stand then, to start doing things. Eboshi does so also, relying on Gonzo’s help to get to her feet. She approaches the figures, peers into the beautiful face of the man.

“Ahkiro? Is that you?”

He grins and she is dazzled by the brilliance of his humanity.

“Yes, my lady!” He says. Eboshi almost cries.

“And Hiyori?” The older woman nods her head. Eboshi lays a hand on her shoulder. “This is—this is…”

“Wonderful?” Ahkiro supplies.

“Yes!” Eboshi says. “I’m so pleased! Do you know…” She chokes, she can barely get it out. “Where is Miwa?”

The former lepers look at each other, knowing smiles on their faces, and gesture over to a ring of trees, where wildflowers fill a small clearing.

Eboshi hobbles over to the clearing and searches with greedy eyes the verdant spot of sunlight. Her eyes spot nothing in the sunshine and so they travel immediately to the shade of the trees, where they find the woman, sitting on a root, staring at the patch of daylight.

Eboshi steps into it. Miwa’s eyes jerk up, her uncovered face is devoid of all blemishes, and her hair falls loose and ragged, but shining like silk. Her perfect mouth forms a word that Eboshi can barely hear over the hammering of her heart.

“Beloved.”


End file.
